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Teacher New Year’s Resolutions–Version 2016!

Where did 2015 go? Seriously. While I try to figure that out…here’s some NEW teacher new year’s resolutions to make you giggle. You can click on 2015 to see the original list and 2017 to see the new set. Oh…and now there’s a version 2018!

You are right of course, but in her defense, she does teach elementary. About half of the staff at my high school are male, but if she has one guy in her building, it is probably the principal, and if there are two, the second is either the janitor or the gym teacher. That is the reality of most elementary schools.

Got my hubby drilling holes in mugs over the next couple of months. We’re clearing out several teachers’ cupboards and making them into our Mothers Day planters this year.
I went through my first mug-less Christmas since I started teaching this year!…and then my 21 year old gave me one for Christmas. Can’t win.

#10 I have a teaching degree and have not been able to find a teaching position. I went three years without a full time job. If you have an English LA 5-12 license, I will gladly trade you places. You can be an IA.

If your situation permits, go overseas. My wife has been a music teacher for 32yrs now & has taught in South Africa, New Zealand,Qatar & presently in China. We have met and made friends from all over the world , many from the US too. Many international schools will give you that chance.You’ll also get better paid,health insurance,housing (free) and some other benefits. You get to see the world,meet interesting people and experience different cultures….hopefully you also broaden your mind too. After being made redundant, a fellow Toastmaster advised me to retrain and teach English as a second language.A whole new world opened up for me too. Martin Francis

My son had a wonderful 4th grade teacher. He finally went on to become an administrator to make more money to support his family. With that said, there are many people who have a degree, who don’t have 2-3 weeks off for a Christmas break and have the summer to enjoy their children. I by means am demeaning teachers, but there are many jobs that require an education that are far worse.

Hi Kaye! That is a very common perception and an easy one to make because your son had 2-3 weeks off for Christmas break and a summer you assume the teachers do as well. The teachers, however do not. Hard working teachers like the one your son had in fourth grade probably only had two day weekends – when there was a three day weekend. In general teachers work one day EVERY weekend. That’s a six day work week and if you count the hours they work after school each day it easily adds up to an eight day work week. Teachers have about three hours of grading a night. That’s not including planning, prepping and inputting grades into grading systems. That is simply putting a grade on each paper created that day. When teachers log all the hours they work they make less than minimum wage. They make less than most babysitters – and babysitters do not need a degree, prepare a lesson plan, or assess progress. I’m not saying there are not jobs that are worse – that is a matter of perception anyway. All I am sharing is that teacher’s work hours are over the top and they do not have the breaks people think. There are continuing education hours etc. Summers are not as free as you think and really they probably do not cover all the evenings (every school event/play/conferences/school fair) and Saturdays teachers worked. Many people work hard in their profession. I am not saying teachers are the only ones. I think the frustration is that there is a perception that teaching have perks due to their perceived “time off.” The truth is, it’s not as much time as people tend to think. Teachers are generally overworked. That’s all I wanted to share!

I am not debating that teachers are putting in the time you talk about Danna. The thing is, memes like this and comments like yours seem to imply this is exclusive to the field of education and the rest of us work 9-5, 5 days a week. My husband leaves the house at 6 am each day, gets home closer to7 pm. Part of that is his hour commute. When he’s home he is still getting pinged with emails…in fact we are on vacation and he’s already answered three of them today. He doesn’t earn six figures. He doesn’t get off all the federal holidays and he doesn’t always get to take the 21 days off he’s eligible for. He also puts in time on the weekends…sometimes both days. I work from home. Most of my vacation time involves me logging in and doing some work in the hotel in the evenings because I don’t get a whole lot paid of time off. I have flexible hours so I can take a three day weekend only by working at night. I get very few federal,holidays off and get paid very little…my home office is my trade off. I love my job and I love the flex time…but I work my tail off to make it work. My point is regardless of what job we have, we ALL put in long hours, weekends, eat. Very few of us work a five day week at eight hours a day…and maybe if we all started respecting that none of us have it harder or whatever it’d be easier to accept posts like this without a measure of cynicism

Teaching today. Is actually 2 jobs. The day job is working with human beings. Handling the …people side …..of the job. Managing the ebb and flow of the environment. The night job begins as soon as children leave the building. That involves all the planning, grading, searching, communicating, meetings, shopping, planning and preparing reports to justify your existence. Any perception that you know what teaching is like because you have been a student is simply an illusion.

You DO understand that those days “off” are not paid? You are paid to teach a certain amount of days. The DISTRICT chooses when those days will be. And teachers do NOT have summers “off”. Continuing education and planning for the upcoming year take at least a month of that and teachers are NOT paid for that. Also, most teachers work summers to augment their meager salary.

Don’t know where you live but but here in New England 10 or 11 days including weekends is all you get for Christmas break and as for summer most of it is spent taking classes and preparing for the next school year.

Lots of truth in these comments.
And/but all the illustrations are of women.
That just isn’t true any more– though often it takes a two income family (of whatever sexes) to earn enough for one to afford to earn just the salary of a teacher.

Goooodness, folks, take a deep breath. Humor, it’s humor. Truth, yes, but read it for what it’s worth and move on. Nobody in their right mind loves doing what I do, wrangling with 100 thirteen-year-olds, day in and day out. So my “senior citizen” teammates/colleagues and I really are half crazy and choose to continue pouring ourselves into these kiddos. So when something as pointed as these memes come across our email, we enjoy a good laugh–and get back to our 60 hour workweek. Not asking for anybody’s pity or comparison. Just love a good laugh.

Male teacher from Florida – glad ti is my last year. Tired of not teaching and doing this the the government says is the things to do. Now they do not think we can teach and want us to show videos of the lesson. Too much testing and too little time in the room teaching.
I did enjoy the humor, it made my days…

These are great, shared! Have an awesome NEW year, everyone! Just because our school year begins 2015, there is no reason not to celebrate the NEW calendar year with vim and vigor! Too much rigor for our dedicated teachers and not enough for our students. PLEASE rewind … these drive by educators threw the baby out with the bathwater. Next you’ll use robots and think it’s the est way to follow your orders. Flip the desks on this malarkey. Our youths are getting short changed while consultants and specialists are lining their pockets. Same old same old … children first! ❤

About me…

I'm an upper elementary teacher in north Texas. I love tacky crafts, chilling with my dogs and husband, trying to grow things, writing, and making learning fun for my kiddos. Teaching is THE most important job in the world, but it's stressful. I hope that this blog provides ideas to make teaching and learning a little easier and a lot more fun! I also post funny things from time to time. If you've got a question or comment, or want to tell me a fun teaching story, feel free to send me a message at pensivesloth@gmail.com.